Kids' Cooking Club

I'm getting ready to head out and shop for my kids' cooking club, Little Chefs. I started this activity with Avlyn's playgroup, and this month is the last month we meet before summer break. If you're homeschooling a preschooler and wondering what you can do to get a bunch of kids together, try starting a cooking club. The great thing about a cooking club is that it works for any age group. High schoolers can use it as part of a home economics class and create their own recipes. For a more in-depth explanation on how to start one, you can see my eHow article. http://www.ehow.com/how_4550638_start-kids-cooking-club.html

The group I have ranges in age from 2 to 4, with most of the two year olds being older two's. We meet once a month, and I have three to four recipes planned out for them. They do not use the oven or stove. I handle all of the actual baking or cooking procedures. I reuse the plastic cups that stores sell applesauce in and make sure each kid has the ingredients they need in their own cups. This month the theme is fruits. I try to think of recipes the kids can do on their own, with little to no parental involvement. For example, one of the fruit recipes will have the kids taking an apple slice, spreading peanut butter on it and sprinkling it with teddy grahams.

The kids have cracked eggs, made pizza, decorated cookies, stuffed biscuits with sausage and cheese, made fruit face english muffins, and made seasonal treats. All the kids really seem to like it. My daughter loves it and looks forward to it each month. After speaking to some of the other moms, I found out that Little Chefs was the first time their child had cracked an egg. So it's a fun way to teach cooking and kitchen skills, and it's so yummy!

Here is Avlyn decorating a cookie during Little Chefs. I see Santa in the background, so this must have been the December group.